> Once upon a time Prof Jake Messinger shaped the electrons to say...
> >I get GPF's when I exit from User setups and re-enter USERS quite often. I
> >get this on any machine I use and I have used a dozen and under win, and
> >win 95.
>
> So you edit an existing user, exit, then go into edit again and it GPFs?
Yes, I ll try to reporoduce it later today , very busy right now. Its not
been that much of a problem, so thats why I never brought it up until
someone else complained. Im just happy it works MOST of the time.
> >ALSO! I cannot run multiple copies of PM console or look at 2 portmasters
> >at one time, unless I acutally name the executable to something else.
>
> Not uncommon with 16-bit Windows apps.
Yes but some apps let you access 2 or more devices at once. Oh well.
Accessing 1 is good enough for me for now. As I was saying, it would be
great to be able to clone an entire portmaster (which I know you can do by
saving and restoring the setup), or at least compare settings.
> >ALSO! The scalablility of some of the boxes is not there or not adequate.
> >Not all of us have 1280x1024 screens to see these big windows on.
The tables go off the screen. Go look around and you will see where some
space is being wasted. This is a minor point tho, so its not that big a
deal for me.
> You want to access a PM as root (basically what it does) without a
> password??
No no of course not. I want to be able to have PMCONSOLE store the
passwords for each portmaster after the first time I type it. Kind of like
how WIN 95 stores a password for PPP. OR I want to be able to put the
password on a command line so that i can make an ICON for each portmaster
with the password on the command line and click on it. MY PC is secure
anyway. It has a password on it and I dont share my hard drvie.
That would TOTALLY BE KEWL! If you ignore EVERYTHING else in this message,
pay attention to the password part. Its really annoying to check a list of
passwords to log into all my portmasters, and I dont use a pattern like
pass1 for pm1, pass2 for pm2, because of obvious reasons. That is a
password theory no-no.
> >Also, you cannot delete entries in the portmaster unit list. Once you've
> >accessed it, its in the list forever. Im sure it could be manually
> >deleted.
>
> Hmm. Sounds like a good RFE.
Thanx. I knew I was right about at least 1 thing. ;-)
> >PMCONSOLE is a resource hog!!!! What does it do that is so complicated
> >that it needs to gobble as much memory as it does?!!?!
>
> *shrug* That I do not know, I'm not the programmer. (But Andy might be
> reading this.)
Well all I know is I have 32 megs ram in my machine and with PMCONSOLE and
just a couple of other apps running, I get warnings about low resources
all the time from PMCONSOLE. Ill just add more ram. I dont care if its a
hog if it gets the job done.
> >they fail, like user upgrades. I attribute this to the fact that the
> >software is looking for a different "success" message. This could be
>
> The 'pmlib' - the bit that allows it to talk to the PMs - is changed
> in many ways since then. I don't know if you can even make it backwards
> compatible and not break current capabilities.
Hmm, I guess youd have to make it read an ident string on the PM to decide
what sort of machine it is, then execute the code differently based on the
ident. If you send me the source, Ill fix it right up! ;-)
> Keep in mind we're doing what we can to get PM-11s out of the field and
> to get people to upgrade to PM-2s, etc. We don't *want* to support
> them, the PM-11 is end-of-lifed. I don't think we even have one working
> in the building.
What do people do with their old PM 11's? Do YOU ever get any back?
I understand that and Im not asking you to alter PMCONSOLE just to
configure a PM 11. Im really suprised that PMCONSOLE works as well with an
11 as it does.
However, I think you really SHOULD still support the 11 for several
reason:
1. There are MANY out there still. I have many and have sold many.
2. They still work pretty well and are good for backups and shell
services.
3. They CAN be upgraded if you know what you are doing. I have done it.
Gee, I guess I voided the warranty, huh? ;-) Seriously, tho, there are
some "things" you can do to get 115200 out of them without comm overruns.
4. They are only 4 years out of active sales according to the dates I
see on some of the latest ones.
5. Most importantly, a person who is happy with a PM 11 is MUCH more
likely to go out and upgrade to a PM 2 or 3. If he has a bad experience
with a PM 11, he might think that ALL PM equipment is crap or that your
support is not as good.
Im happy with the PM 11's I got so I went out and bought 2 PM 2's. And so
have at least 2 other ISP's I know. THey bought the PM 11's used cuz they
were cheap and they wanted to experiment.
I should think that the fact that an old product that your
company makes still being in demand makes it something worth supporting if
only to gain further sales.
Maybe you guys don't know that they are in demand? They are, trust me.
They are!
Final note: If you need me to supply you with a PM 11, I can. Also, I
would be willing to offer PM 11 support. I have learned alot about these
babies just thru testing.
Gee I feel like a groupie for the "SAVE the 8-TRACK" fan club.
~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~
Jake Messinger 713-772-6690 jake@ams.com
Advanced Medical Systems, Inc. 800-324-8594 jake@uh.edu
Houston, Texas http://www.ams.com/~jake
~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~
(Don't steal my squigglies)